Official Development Assistance: Vulnerable Children

Question

14:46:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to mitigate the impact on vulnerable children of cuts to official development assistance.

My Lords, to fund a necessary increase in defence spending, the Government have taken the decision in the current fiscal circumstances to reduce our official development assistance budget. We remain fully committed to tackling global challenges and, as a ratifier of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Government will continue to champion the promotion, protection and realisation of children’s rights at home and overseas.

My Lords, in welcoming that final commitment, I ask the Minister whether she agrees that children who have access to nutrition, education and health services are the very bedrock on which safe societies and strong economies are built? If so, can she give positive consideration to UNICEF UK’s call this month for the Government to allocate at least 25% of ODA to child-focused programmes, because it considers that that could moderate the impact of the Government’s cuts?

I thank the noble Baroness again and should just say how well regarded she remains in the department; when I saw this Question this morning, there were many kind comments about her. She is absolutely right to remind us of the importance of this, and particularly of nutrition. The UK led the recent Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris compact on the integration of nutrition. We are currently working through the allocations, exactly who will get how much funding and how that will affect our programming, but I thank the noble Baroness for reminding us of the importance of this.

My Lords, I draw attention to my entries in the register on UNICEF UK and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Does the Minister recognise that the children who are most affected by problems in education, health and the other aspects that the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, raises are those who are suffering from conflict and displacement? Is the Minister aware that, last week, the Prime Minister received a letter from a number of individuals with lots of experience in this field and in security and defence, highlighting the fact that it is important for us to build up our hard power but it is not sufficient? Will there be a dedicated budget for conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the revised ODA settlement, and will the forthcoming national security strategy make a clear commitment to this country playing a role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding worldwide?

I cannot speak for what will be in the national security strategy, but my noble friend is absolutely right in what he says about conflict. We will continue to support work on conflict prevention, with, as the Chamber will want to know, a particular focus on the impact on children, who often feel the brunt when conflict happens. They are, sadly, still subject to horrific violence, including sexual violence, in conflict, and this is something that the UK will never take its eye off.

My Lords, the Government regularly provide updates on aid to Afghanistan with a special focus on women and girls, and these are very welcome. Can the Minister say what progress has been achieved in the secondary education of girls, and whether the newly appointed special envoy, Mr Richard Lindsay, will be pursuing this?

We continue to support work on education, particularly in Afghanistan. As the noble Baroness and other noble Lords will know, it is a particularly difficult context in which to operate, and the impact, especially on girls, is profound. We will continue to work through our partners in Afghanistan to do whatever we can to support girls in that horrendous situation.

My Lords, we know that the impact of conflict, climate and other world crises has a disproportionate impact on girls and education in particular. We also know that by far the best return to the pound that we spend on development partnership assistance is when we invest in education in the most needed areas. Why, therefore, have the Government deprioritised education and girls’ education, and why is it not being protected and will now be facing a 40% cut?

The ODA budget faces a 40% cut because we have decided to spend more on the Ministry of Defence, and I think everybody here is aware of that. The best buy in education is actually not through programming or delivery of education; it is through policy change in-country. What we need, and what countries are telling us they want, is more of an emphasis on partnership rather than paternalism. They wish to undertake more of the delivery of education of their own children, and I think we can all understand and respect why that would be. We have huge amounts of expertise, we have our university partnerships and we have many, many ways in which we can support countries to deliver that quality education. In those most difficult circumstances that he refers to, we continue to support global partnerships focused on education, including Education Cannot Wait, which delivers that emergency education in refugee settings, in those places that are very difficult and where other agencies would find it very difficult to operate.

My Lords, the noble Baroness has my sympathy. She confirmed in her opening Answer that being in government often involves difficult decisions, and that this Government have chosen to slash the international aid budget in order to help support the defence and security of our country. This is a difficult choice, which we support; a choice that we do not support was the deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. It has been reported that hundreds of millions of pounds from the noble Baroness’s already reduced aid budget are to be used partially to fund this deal. Will she tell the House if this is true and, if so, how much is being spent on this choice?

We are here to talk about the impact on children. The noble Lord has every right to ask whatever he wants, but that is a slightly strange choice when we have had no end of opportunities to talk about that and we have a debate on it a week today. However, it is his choice. The deal with the Chagos Islands is about securing our nation’s relationship with the United States, and it is about our security and intelligence. This week of all weeks, he should not need me to explain to him why that matters so much.

My Lords, I welcome the recent launch of the British Overseas NGOs for Development’s Faith in Development Working Group. Member organisations such as Tearfund, Islamic Relief Worldwide and World Jewish Relief, together with secular NGOs, are seeking to create a platform to facilitate, encourage and promote faith actors in international development and humanitarian work. What plans does the Minister’s department have to consult and collaborate with faith communities and faith-based organisations, precisely to mitigate the impact of ODA cuts on vulnerable children?

Faith-based organisations have a huge role to play. This morning, I visited GSK’s vaccine laboratory in Stevenage to talk about our Gavi pledge, which is coming up on Wednesday. Faith-based organisations are fundamental in ensuring that vaccination is taken up in some of the most difficult places to operate in the world. I would be very happy to work with the organisation that the right reverend Prelate refers to—I have not met it yet—to see how we can work together.

My Lords, does the Minister agree that part of how to help children through their education is by encouraging businesses to grow in the countries where it is most needed? Will she look to how we can support UK businesses in that journey, as many are trying their level best against a lot of challenges? If we could work together, maybe in the future we will not need the aid that is delivered.

That is the aim of many countries that we are working in. They want to move on from being an aid recipient and be a partner with us, not least in the area of business and economic growth. Relationships, such as on infrastructure and in higher education, are starting to develop. I would like the FCDO to play a leading role in this. As we move towards a change in our approach, having that expertise here in the UK to facilitate those relationships, in finance or technology, is exactly the direction that we should be going in.

My Lords, as there is a lull, I might take an opportunity to ask the Minister a question. The Department for Work and Pensions has stated that, as a result of the planned benefit cuts, an extra 50,000 UK children will be pushed into poverty. Can the Minister explain why that outcome is acceptable to the Government?

My Lords, that would be straying slightly beyond my remit on development. However, I would point out that all of us ought to be deeply concerned about the lack of attendance at school, about mental health affecting too many of our young people and about too often their inability to access the world of work at an early age. We know that that scarring can last a lifetime. The work that the Department for Work and Pensions is doing is about supporting properly those young people into careers so that they can lead fulfilling, healthy lives.